Crock Pot Beef Stew

This kind of cooking doesn't get any easier.  Simply put all these ingredients together in a crock pot, set it on "high" for eight hours, and you're good to go.  The secret to a delicious stew is in not using the cuts of beef typically sold at your grocery store as "stew meat."  These are scraps of mostly lower cuts of tough beef that are to be rendered tender in the stewing process.  They are, however, generally devoid of any fat and fat is what you need to impart good beef flavor.  At our grocery store, the beef section almost always has a "Manager's Special" bin.  These are cuts of beef, mostly sold as choice or prime steaks that are approaching the end of their safe-zone shelf-life and have been marked down in price for quick sale.

My Number One Fan often finds prime beef rib-eye steaks and fillets among these "Specials" and brings them home to either cook immediately or tossed in the freezer for another day.  This makes the dish!  The rich rib-eye fat renders to a delicious stew which will not taste fatty or greasy at all. That said, be sure to trim off the excess fatty parts of the cut; the marbling will be enough fat to make the dish.  A little fat goes a long way.

I also use a product called Kitchen Bouquet Browning and Seasoning Sauce.  It's a staple in our pantry, and is a basic vegetable stock that has been reduced with added seasonings and caramel coloring.  It just adds a little "oomph" to the savoriness of this dish.  You can omit it you want to or if you have an aversion to the artificial coloring.

Lastly, I used smoked salt because I had some on hand.  This is a wonderful product easily found online if not at your grocery store.  It's one of the latest trends in cooking, and a variety of woods are used to produce different smoke-flavor characteristics.  It's not a necessary ingredient to this recipe, of course, and plain ol' table salt will do just fine.

Ingredients
2 lb beef, sirloin or fillet and rib-eye combination, trimmed of excess fat and cubed
2 tsp minced garlic
1 6-oz can tomato paste (like, Hunts)
1/2 tsp smoked salt (like, San Francisco Salt Company Cherry Wood)
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp Kitchen Bouquet
2 stalks celery, diced
1 cup baby carrots, whole
1 medium yellow or sweet onion, diced (like, Vidalia or 1015 Texas Sweet)
2 large Russet potatoes, peeled and diced
2 tbsp dried oregano
2 tbsp dried parsley
2 cups beef stock (like, Kitchen Basics)
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup water
1 cup of apple juice (like, Mott's No Sugar Added)
1 10.5-oz can beef broth (like, Campbell's or Swanson's)
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed (do not use canned)

The Recipe
Generally, make sure your beef and vegetables are cut to roughly the same size, a bit over 1-inch square pieces.  Put everything in the crock pot except the green peas.  Fill the liquid to the very top after placing all dry ingredients in first. Add more water, wine or beef stock if needed.  Give it a good stir.

Cover and set the crock pot on "high" for eight hours.  Give it a good stir once, at about the four hour mark once the stew is on a heavy simmer.  Don't do more than that.  It isn't necessary because nothing can burn in a crock pot, and releasing the heat by frequently lifting the lid will only elongate the cooking time.  You can reduce the cooking time to 5-6 hours by "jump starting" the stew over the stove.  Combine all the ingredients in a large soup pot and bring to a rolling boil.  Carefully transfer the stew to a pre-heated crock pot.

Add the green peas with an hour left to go.  Do not use canned green peas.  They are over-cooked and will simply fall apart in a stew.  Use frozen green peas that have been thawed and brought to room temperature, or defrosted in the microwave.

Serve your stew in big soup bowls with some cheddar biscuits on the side.  Or underneath.  Or on top.  Any place you put a cheddar biscuit next to beef stew is a good place.